Field Tests of Cingular vs. Verizon in DC Metro

[GoodmanR]

I had to do a bunch of driving today so I thought I'd take a Verizon phone along with me. I put both my 6340i on Cingular and an a530 on Verizon and checked several locations. The first, on MacArthur Blvd. and Sangamore Ln. in Bethesda, Verizon -83, Cingular -82, basically the same. At 495 and GW Parkway, Verizon -76, Cingular -71. This is close to a bunch of sites so that could effect it, im not sure how close I was to the VZW site. At GW Parkway and Chain Bridge Road/123 Cingular -78, Verizon -92. Verizon is notorious for being terrible on the parkway, the only thing they do poorly in DC. In Gerogetown, at M st. and Wisconsin, Verizon -75, Cingular -78. In Bethesda, at East-West Highway and Wisconsin Blvd., Cingular -81, Verizon -80. At 495 and River Rd., both came in at -79.

This is pretty much what I expected. Both are 850 carriers and cites within the city and closer suburbs are clustered around the same areas, where they are out of reach of the NIMBY's. But Cingular really holds up to Verizon here, which is nice to know. Except in the Metro tunnels, where Verizon has the advantae of HAVING SERVICE, although its often so bad its not usable.

[SQFreak]

When I have -92 Rx on my LG VX4400, I have no trouble making a call. Usually at my house it's somewhere hovering at -100, +/- 5. I have yet to have a dropped call on the VX4400. It can make calls easily with 1 bar.

My Cingular Nokia 3390 however, would never make a call if I had less than 3 (out of five) bars of signal. (If I had 3, it would work. If I had two, it wouldn't.)

I think that's a GSM vs. CDMA technology difference.

My father's StarTAC 7868W has dropped calls on the first floor of our house, where Alltel has much better service (1 bar versus 4 bars, same phone). I usually force my phone to Alltel when I'm on the first floor.

[GoodmanR]

Although CDMA does seem to hold calls somewhat better, it appears that the wall where GSM drops is like -1 or -2 away from where CDMA drops, so that probably has something to do with the handsets themselves, not GSM vs. CDMA.

You shouldn't really have any trouble making/recieving calls anywhere less than -100 or -95.

[Airb330]

Originally posted by: SQFreak
When I have -92 Rx on my LG VX4400, I have no trouble making a call. Usually at my house it's somewhere hovering at -100, +/- 5. I have yet to have a dropped call on the VX4400. It can make calls easily with 1 bar.

My Cingular Nokia 3390 however, would never make a call if I had less than 3 (out of five) bars of signal. (If I had 3, it would work. If I had two, it wouldn't.)

I think that's a GSM vs. CDMA technology difference.

My father's StarTAC 7868W has dropped calls on the first floor of our house, where Alltel has much better service (1 bar versus 4 bars, same phone). I usually force my phone to Alltel when I'm on the first floor.

That's funny, because anything over -100 on my 4400 was a dropped call. It might take 15 minutes or 3 seconds, but it would drop. That's why I got rid of the darned thing. Even if I had 3 bars on it, usually a -95 reading, it would still drop. Ugh....bad memories.

[SQFreak]

Well, my phone calls are usually 1-5 minutes in length, except at off-peak when they get a little longer. That's when I kick the phone over to Alltel for Extended Network because I get a slightly better signal with them at my house.

My father's Motorola StarTAC 7868W drops calls much more in my house than my LG VX4400.